The Language Pod is an interdisciplinary research laboratory that operates inside of COSI, a public science museum in Columbus, Ohio.
The Pod has two primary goals:
- To conduct research in linguistics, psychology, speech and hearing science, and other related fields through recruitment of the public at COSI.
- To educate and perform outreach demonstrations for museum guests that teach about language science and the work we do as language scientists.
For this program, students get the opportunity to engage in both of these aspects of the lab’s work. For your research experience, you will be assigned an OSU faculty member or graduate student and their advisor, as a mentor. You’ll work on an existing research project with them. At the end of the program, you’ll prepare and present a talk on the work.
For the outreach component, you’ll learn about our set of interactive demos, designed to introduce museum visitors to the science of language. These might be a video game, which demonstrates the Stroop Effect, or an activity that teaches the different aspects of communication systems using dinosaurs.
The 2025 program will run for 8 weeks between May 19 to July 11. Students with summer plans involving significant other commitments during the run of the program will not be a good fit for the program. The time commitment is 35 in-person hours per week throughout. You will be expected to put in some of that time at the science museum on the weekends.
Please note: This program does not take place on the Ohio State University Campus. Most of your time will be spent at COSI, a public science museum in Columbus, Ohio, or at the STEAM Factory (400 W. Rich St., Columbus, OH), an OSU-sponsored co-working space near COSI.
